What Happened in May 1911

Historical Events

Deutschland II Wrecked

May 16 Zeppelin airship "Deutschland II" (LZ 8) is wrecked while leaving the balloon hangar at Dusseldorf

Inventor of the Zeppelin Ferdinand von Zeppelin

May 17 36th Preakness: Eddie Dugan aboard Watervale wins in 1:51
May 18 President Jose Porfirio Diaz of Mexico's term ends

L'heure espagnole

May 19 Maurice Ravel's opera "L'heure espagnole" premieres at the Opéra-Comique in Paris

May 20 Edwin Boaler Alletson hits 189 in 90 mins Notts v Sussex
May 21 French troop enter Fez in Morocco to quell anti-European agitation
May 22 Braves pitcher, Cliff Curtis, loses his 23rd game in a row

NY Public Library Dedicated

May 23 NY Public Library building at 5th Avenue dedicated by President William Howard Taft

May 25 Revolution in Mexico overthrows President Jose Porfirio Diaz
May 26 Germany passes legislation organizing Alsace and Lorraine as an autonomous state with a legislature
May 30 1st Indianapolis 500: Ray Harroun driving a Marmon Wasp for Nordyke & Marmon Company comes out of retirement, wins inaugural event; average speed: 74.602 mph (120.060 km/h)
May 31 Mexican President Porfirio Díaz flees the country during the Mexican Revolution

RMS Titanic Launched

May 31 RMS Titanic launched in Belfast

Events in 1911

Famous Birthdays

May 3 John Rhea "Yank" Lawson, American jazz trumpeter ("Dogtown Blues"; "Stormy Weather"), born in Trenton, Missouri (d. 1995)
May 5 (Thaman) "Pete" Daily, American swing and dixieland jazz cornetist and valve trombonist (The Chicagoans), born in Portland, Indiana (d. 1981)
May 5 Gilles Grangier, French film director (Archimède le clochard), born in Paris (d. 1996)
May 5 Norman Oldfield, English cricketer (Engl batsman one Test v WI 1939, 80 & 19), born in Dukinfield, Cheshire, England (d. 1996)
May 5 Philip Manson-Bahr, English zoologist and specialist in tropical medicine, born in Wavertree, Liverpool, England (d. 1996)
May 7 Ishirō Honda, Japanese film director and producer (Godzilla), born in Yamagata, Japan (d. 1993)

Robert Johnson (1911-1938)

May 8 American blues singer-songwriter, and guitarist (King of Delta Blues Singers), born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi

May 9 Harry Simeone, American music arranger (Kate Smith Show, "The Little Drummer Boy"), born in Newark, New Jersey (d. 2005)
May 10 Alexander Goode, American US Navy chaplain and rabbi (The Four Chaplains), born in Brooklyn, NYC (d. 1943) [1]
May 10 Bel Kaufman, American author (Up the Down Staircase), born in Berlin, Germany (d. 2014)
May 11 Edgar Beck, English civil engineer (led firm Mowlem that reconstructed Downing St, built new London Bridge and NatWest Tower), born in London England (d. 2000)
May 11 Mitchell Sharp, Canadian politician (d. 2004)
May 13 Maxine Sullivan [Marietta Williams], American jazz vocalist and performer (Going Places), born in Homestead, Pennsylvania (d. 1987)
May 13 Robert Middleton, American film and TV actor (Barney-Monroes), born in Cincinnati, Ohio (d. 1977)
May 14 Hans Vogt, German composer, born in Danzig, Prussia (now Gdansk, Poland) (d. 1992)
May 15 Herta Oberheuser, Nazi doctor (d. 1978)
May 15 Leo Fuchs, Polish-born Jewish American actor (The Six Million Dollar Man, Avalon), born in Lemberg, Galicia, Austria-Hungary (d. 1994)
May 15 Max Frisch, Swiss writer and playwright (I’m Not Stiller, Firebugs), born in Zürich, Switzerland (d. 1991)
May 16 Olaff J de Landell [JB Wemmerslager van Sparwoude], Dutch writer, born in Java (d. 1989)
May 17 Lisa Fonssagrives, Swedish supermodel, born in Västra Götaland County, Sweden (d. 1992)
May 17 Maureen O'Sullivan, Irish actress (Tarzan, Pride & Prejudice, Hannah and Her Sisters), born in Boyle, County Roscommon, Ireland (d. 1998)
May 18 "Big" Joe Turner, American blues singer ("Corrine Corrina"; "Shake Rattle & Roll"), born in Kansas City, Missouri (d. 1985)
May 18 Michael Berry, Baron Hartwell, British newspaper proprietor and journalist (d. 2001)
May 18 Sigrid Gurie, Norwegian American actress (Algiers, Sofia, Refugee), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1969)
May 20 Annie M. G. Schmidt, Dutch writer (Fam Doorsnee, Jip & Janneke), born in Kapelle, Netherlands (d. 1995)
May 20 Gardner Fox, American sci-fi author (Atom; Hawkman; Zatanna), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1986)
May 22 Anatol Rapoport, Ukrainian-American mathematician and biologist (game theory), born in Lozova, Kharkov Governorate, Russia (d. 2007)

Betty Nuthall (1911-1983)

May 23 English tennis player (US National Championship, 1930), born in Surbiton, England

May 23 Boris Kremenliev, Bulgarian-American composer (The Tell-Tale Heart), educator (UCLA, 1947-78), and ethnomusicologist (Bulgarian-Macedonian Folk Music), born in Razlog, Bulgaria (d. 1988)
May 23 Melvin M Payne, American scientific leader (National Geographic Society, 1932-88), born in Washington, D.C. (d. 1990)
May 24 Barbara West, English survivor of the Titanic sinking, born in Bournemouth, Dorset, England (d. 2007)

Ne Win (1911-2002)

May 24 Burmese general, military dictator (1962-88) and President of Burma (1962-81), born in Paungdale, Lower Burma, British India [1]

May 26 Ben Alexander, American actor (Dragnet, All Quiet on the Western Front), born in Goldfield, Nevada (d. 1969)

Hubert Humphrey (1911-1978)

May 27 American politician, 38th Vice President of the United States (1965-69), and 1968 Presidential candidate, born in Wallace, South Dakota

May 27 Teddy Kollek, Israeli politician (Mayor of Jerusalem), born in Nagyvázsony, Hungary (d. 2007)
May 27 Torolf Elster, Norwegian journalist and writer (Frihet och demokrati), born in Kristiania, Norway (d. 2006)
May 27 Vincent Price, American actor (House on Haunted Hill, Fly, Laura), born in St Louis, Missouri (d. 1993)
May 28 Arthur "Skeets" Herfurt, American jazz and session saxophonist and clarinetist (Dorsey Brothers; Benny Goodman; Lawrence Wlek), born in Cincinnati, Ohio (d. 1992)
May 28 Bob Crisp, South African cricket fast bowler (9 Tests, 20 wickets; Rhodesia, Western Province, Worcestershire), born in Calcutta, India (d. 1994)
May 28 Dame Thora Hird, British actress, comedian, presenter and writer (Last of the Summer Wine, The Love Match), born in Morecambe, Lancashire (d. 2003)
May 28 Jean-Pierre Levy, French resistance leader during WWII, born in Strasbourg, France (d. 1996)
May 29 James Marjoribanks, British ambassador to the European Economic Community, born in Colinton, Scotland (d. 2002)
May 29 Ralph Louis Wain, British agricultural scientist, born in Hyde, Cheshire (d. 2000)
May 30 Douglas Fowley, American actor (Singin' in the Rain, Pistols 'n' Petticoats), born in New York City (d. 1998)
May 31 Edward Adamson, British artist, 'father of art therapy' and collector, born in Sale, England (d. 1996)

Born in 1911

Famous Deaths

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)

May 18 Austrian composer (Symphony No. 2 - "Resurrection"), and conductor (New York Philharmonic, 1909-11), dies of heart disease at 50

May 20 E. M. Grace, English cricket all-rounder (1 Test, HS 36; Gloucestershire CCC), dies at 69
May 21 Williamina Fleming, Scottish-born astronomer (b. 1857)
May 25 Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky, Russian imperial historian, dies at 70
May 28 Stephanus Jacobus du Toit, South African theologist and journalist (Afrikaner Bond), dies at 64

W. S. Gilbert (1836-1911)

May 29 English dramatist, poet librettist remembered for his comic operas with Arthur Sullivan (The Pirates of Penzance; H.M.S. Pinafore; The Mikdao), dies of a heart attack at 74

May 30 Milton Bradley, American business magnate and game manufacturer (The Game of Life), dies at 74

On This Day